Life And Death In Savage Suzerain

     Player characters can escape death with alarming ease, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The universe loves a good story, especially the slam-bang kind where heroes aren’t piling up left and right from boring-yet-efficient sniper fire. Ever since the Underworld replaced its three-headed dog with an honor system, death has just had a hard time sticking to the bold.

     Novice, Seasoned and Veteran rank characters in Suzerain only require the expenditure of 1 Karma to escape death’s clammy grasp. Instead of kicking the bucket, the character is spared by his Telesma sending out a mighty distress signal to the gods and they orchestrate a suitable coincidence or act of ‘dumb luck’. The gods work in ways that can be as humble as a runaway kangaroo or as surprising as a last-minute religious conversion.

     In practical terms, the player should look forward to controlling Extras, getting drinks, and ensuring other players never want for snacks for the rest of the session, but his character will return at the start of the next session – no longer Incapacitated but bearing whatever Wounds and Fatigue he had at the time of 'death’. The gods don’t suffer foolish deaths gladly, however; the character starts his second (or third, or fourth) lease on life with no Karma for that session. If he dies in that session… well, that’s just careless. He had it comin’. With no Karma it’s time to roll the credits and think up another character idea.

     At Heroic and Legendary rank, a character begins the post-’death’ session with 1 Karma. Demigod rank characters begin the session with 2 Karma. These numbers aren’t modified by Edges and Hindrances, nor by being Heroic or Demigod, nor anything else for that matter. Them’s the breaks, but it sure beats the alternative.

     Now some of you might ask, “What happens when my character flies the nukes into the sun to sacrifice himself for the greater good?” Simply enough… he’s dead. Honestly, there’s no coming back from that. The Telesma is fried and never gets to send out the distress call. Also, if a character volunteers to make a great sacrifice, his Telesma will pick up on that vibe and let him die a hero’s death with full honors.

     There are going to be some situations where it’s genuinely not right for the story that the character survives, and this rule isn’t there to stop that. Instead, consider the following option in those cases: the Telesma scoops up the life essence of the character at his instant of death, then somehow finds its way into the hands of another potential hero, about as skilled as the deceased character (same rank), and binds itself to him instead – create a new character, but he has the sum of the life experiences of the old character imprinted on his memories. He thinks it’s a past life thing, but it’s actually the pretty jewel he just found.

     Which option you use when a character would otherwise die, that’s up to you and your GM. Each situation is different and different results are appropriate for a gritty horror realm than a heroic fantasy realm. Bottom line, though… in Suzerain, death is not the end, even if you have to go questing to some shadowy afterlife realm to bring your character’s soul back.

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Content Type > Approved Content
Savage Suzerain

Created by: Ashron. Last Modification: Saturday 09 of January, 2010 00:59:29 UTC by Ashron.